


Precision

by LegendCow



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Because they were criminally underused, Emotionally Repressed, Friendship, Gen, POV First Person, Superstition, Yuyan Archer OC, so I decided to take matters into my own hands
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:01:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25098820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LegendCow/pseuds/LegendCow
Summary: Hunter. Soldier. Archer. Assassin. Stalker. Traitor. Revolutionary.I have been called many things. I have done things and been places I would never have believed possible before. I have seen allies become bitter enemies, and enemies become my best friends. I'll tell the story as best I can, but don't expect to hear some grand tale of heroism, battling impossible odds, powerful benders the likes of which are only seen once in a lifetime, and the fall of a wicked regime. Those things happened, sure, but I didn't see all of it.Either way, this is the story of how I stalked the Avatar across the world, and betrayed everything I ever knew.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Precision

There’s no warning on the day your life changes forever. The day will start the same as any other. I woke up at the crack of dawn, same as any other day. I got down to the mess hall, took the same hot food (and I use that term very loosely) the cook had slapped together, and sat down to try and stomach it again. Seriously, they hired an _Earth_ _Kingdom_ cook to feed _Fire Nation_ soldiers. He can’t outright poison us, but he can damn well try to kill us with indigestion.

“Good morning, Mayumi,” one of my squad mates sat down across from me, a pile of gruel sitting on his plate as well, “The blank, glazed look in your eyes suits you.”

“And the air of boredom and apathy hanging off you helps me start the day, Satoshi,” I replied, earning a puff of air through his nose that might have been mistaken for a laugh. This is the most any of us interact. Sarcastic remarks about how bored we are being Pohuai Fortress’s personal guard dogs, then we go and train or stand on a wall all day, then whoever is on night shift replaces us and we go down to train some more before turning in for the night. Day in day out, rinse repeat, try not to slam your head into the wall. No companionship, only commiseration.

But, again, today was different.

Precision, that’s what we are known for. Legendary, according to some, infamous to others. It’s said that a Yuyan Archer could pin a fly to a tree by its wing at a hundred yards. Without killing it. All these things and more floated down to us as we trained, taking turns plugging the bullseye of our training targets, while Commander Zhao argued with Colonel Shinu that our talents were being wasted serving guard duty in Pohuai.

 _Something I think we all agree on_ , I thought, half listening as I knocked another arrow and fired it in the same motion. Another bullseye, another split arrow, just as before. A force as useful as us should be hunting down fugitives and fighting insurgents, not practicing against stationary targets, and fighting boredom.  
The Yuyan had been used for secret operations before and would doubtless be used again. I had to keep from rolling my eyes as the colonel called Zhao’s chase for the Avatar a ‘vanity project.’ What exactly did he think he was doing using an elite group of assassins as his personal guard dogs if not for the sake of vanity? I noticed some of my fellows actually did roll their eyes, but none of us said a word.

“We’re fighting a real war here, and I need every man I’ve got,” we heard Shinu bark at him. _Fighting who exactly?!_ This valley might have been a key strategic point way back near the start of the war, but the Earth Kingdom had long since given up on it. But still, no one spoke this out loud.

Just as none of us said anything when a messenger hawk arrived, carrying with it news of Zhao’s promotion to Admiral. And not a single archer snickered as he told Colonel Shinu that he was now _ordering_ him to give command of the Yuyan Archers over to him.

We were professionals after all, and a professional does not laugh at the misfortune of their former commanding officer.

As it turns out, our new deployment was basically our doorstep. The Avatar had been sighted nearby, on the road to the ruins of Taku. From what I learned by just living close to it for a few years, Taku used to be a commerce center for the North Western Earth Kingdom, before the Fire Nation realized that and decided it would be a good place for a fortress. So, they kicked out the people there, built Pohuai Fortress, and the rest is history. The only person left living there was a crazy old herbalist. She was basically harmless, even if her cat was a jerk.

“The Avatar is dangerous,” Zhao briefed us, walking down the line of archers as we stood at attention, “Despite his youth he is a master air bender, deviously cunning, and devilishly lucky. As such he has avoided capture at every previous juncture.” He stopped pacing in front of Han, the oldest of the Yuyan and the only member of the original squadron left. It was him that had originated the legend of pinning a live fly to a tree, although he had remained tight lipped on whether it was true or not. Han remained completely passive, as we are trained to do, as Zhao stared him down, “I do not feel I need to say this, but allow me to reemphasize, no quarter is to be taken with the Avatar. And no failure, no matter how minor, will be tolerated.”

Han’s expression didn’t shift, neither did any of ours. Although, personally, I wanted to sigh in exasperation. We all already knew this, we already knew our orders, so what was the point in telling us? But I remained still, ready to move the moment Zhao stepped out of our way.

“You have your orders. Move out!”

 _Right on cue_. Like a pack of tiger monkeys that slipped their leashes we tore off, quickly leaving the fortress behind as we took to the forest outside the walls. Climbing the trunks, we started towards Taku. We all but glided from tree to tree as we made our way to the ruins, running and jumping along branches, swinging from them to gain a little distance. Everyone was silent, our eyes locked on the ruined city ahead. Just before we broke the tree line, Han stopped on a branch, silently signaling us to do the same. Our target was close.

The wind was blowing hard, the field of grass between our position and the ruined city rippled and swayed like waves on the ocean. Not that that was a problem, I’d hit wild goat rabbits in the eye in heavier gales, before I’d even been recruited.

Then the Avatar appeared.

He was running, not at wind breaking speeds like we’d been warned, but urgently. Han drew his bow, and it was hardly a breath later before the rest of us followed suit. Time slowed down as I focused my breathing and drew the arrow back. I felt the wind as it turned and twisted around me. I could practically see the path the arrow would take, my aim shifting to accommodate for the gale. When the line matched up with the Avatar’s feet, we were to take him alive after all, I fired. The entire process may have felt like a full minute, but in reality, it had only taken a moment. An arrow flew from another archer at the same time, though no order to fire was given. As expected, the arrows pinned the very edges of his shoes to the ground, nearly sending him toppling. It was almost comical to watch the most powerful bender in the world windmill his arms to stay upright.

As was the face he made when even more arrows were already headed towards him. He shifted his hands and deflected the arrows with a swirling gust of wind, sending our projectiles into the surrounding ground and trees.

 _Well that’s just cheating,_ I thought as I drew again.

The Avatar pulled one of the arrows out of his shoes and held it up, saying, “Uh… I think you dropped this!” I nearly lost my composure, partly at the ridiculousness of the statement, partly at his voice. He sounded so young, far too young. I knew he wasn’t an adult, but I had assumed he’d at least be a teenager. He sounded like a little boy.

 _You still have a mission_ , I told myself, and I let my arrow fly again. This time the Avatar managed to rip the other arrow pinning him down out of the ground and dodge to the side, more arrows almost appearing sunk into the ground like they’d simply grown there. He bobbed and weaved to avoid our shots as we cut off his escape routes, a few of our number having snuck down to ground level to surprise him. Still he eluded the pinning missiles, even as we drove him toward a cliff.

But he simply jumped off of it. Because he’s an air bender, so of course he did.

 _Well at least he’s keeping it interesting,_ I silently snarked as a handful of us charged off the cliff after him. He shouted as he dove towards the trees below. Or more accurately _fell_ , because when he reached the foliage his grunts of pain and shouts of surprise were anything but graceful. I fired a tether into one of the trees, using it to lose momentum so once I hit the trees it wasn’t as literal as he did it, my fellows following suit.

Once in the branches we repeated the sequence from before, chasing in leaps and bounds, leading him with our shots to get him to the swamp at the bottom of the valley. He managed to stay on his feet for the most part, only losing his balance once his legs were submerged in the muddy water. He reached down into the freezing cold swamp, pulling something out of it with a gasp. I fired at the object, thinking it something he planned to fight us with.

Only to hear him exclaim, “A frog!” just as my arrow knocked it from his hand.

 _A frog?_ I was completely confused, not in the least because the Avatar kept reaching down and grabbing more of them then stuffing them into his shirt, even as we shot to pin his hands underwater. Finally, he backed close enough to a fallen log that we could pin one of his arms to it, again knocking whatever he was collecting out of his hand. He raised an arm to defend himself, freezing a wall of water between us and him. _He’s already learned water bending? That might have been an issue, but…_ Three arrows split on his ice shield was all it took to break it, four more pinned his free arm, and another four caught him in a net like a frog squirrel in a snare. As a few of the others wrapped him up so we could haul him back, I took a moment to reach into the water and pull out whatever the Avatar had been collecting. And, sure enough, it was a frog. One frozen solid in the cold of late winter, but a frog none the less.

 _Why in Agni’s name was he collecting these?_ I asked myself as we quickly headed back to the stronghold, Avatar in tow. The question would wait, however. We weren’t around to ask questions.

He had struggled and fought the whole way back, even though we’d bound his feet and hands so he couldn’t bend. He did blow a gust of wind that knocked Satoshi on his ass, but one glare from Han shut him up until we got back. He looked like a scolded child after that.

 _He_ is _a child,_ I thought. I tried to ignore it.

We delivered him to the dungeon guards and were summarily dismissed, left to go about our normal duties. Which for me meant going to sleep. I walked back to the women’s dormitory, if a small room with three beds could be called a dormitory. The Archers were given separate accommodations from the rest of the fortress, so I didn’t know any of the other women serving there. Not that I really knew my bunkmates, one was named Oka I think, and I never learned the other one. We worked together well enough, but I wouldn’t call anyone in the squadron “friends.”

Either way, I flopped into my bunk after stowing my gear, trying hard not to think about how we just arrested a child on the orders of a power-hungry Admiral.

I almost succeeded.

“You have got to be kidding me,” I muttered to myself as I rushed down the hallways, slinging my bow over my shoulder as I went. The Avatar got out while I was asleep and was now on a rampage through the fortress along with fellow urban myth, the Blue Spirit. Seriously, today has been nothing but living legends knocking at our door! What’s next, the Painted Lady is gonna appear in the rice fields outside?!

I get outside, I’m before my squad so I spot the Avatar first. And, sure enough, there’s a man in a Blue Spirit mask fighting alongside him. I barely have time to react before the air bender launches his friend over the inner wall with a gust of wind, following close behind. I sprinted across the courtyard, taking the steps up the wall two at a time to try and catch up, only for them to start _flying_ over the soldiers in the second courtyard by _spinning a stick._ And there used to be an entire country of guys like him? Completely unfair advantage.

I draw an arrow while the soldiers throw javelins to knock them down. The Blue Spirit cuts them out of the air, which I’ll admit is impressive, but it throws his pilot off balance. _Perfect._ I manage to knock the stick from the Avatar’s hand, knocking them onto the second wall, where they’re quickly surrounded by soldiers. _That’s not gonna be enough._ I can already see a soldier getting thrown off the wall from here, so I decide I need to help.

A moment later and there’s a rope tied around one of the pillars near me, the other end secured to an arrow. I fire into a pillar on the other side and jump onto the rope. I barely have time to say a silent prayer to Agni before the masked swordsman cuts my support. I curse as I fall, trying to twist in the air so I don’t land on anything important, but a gust of air keeps me from smashing my spine against the mud.

“Sorry!” I hear drift from the battlements… _Did he seriously just… save me?_ I shake my head to clear it, filing those thoughts away for later before sprinting at the stairs once again. I manage to catch a glimpse of them using a trio of bamboo ladders like stilts to cross the yard. Again, I have to be impressed at their ingenuity at least. However, as this is a Fire Nation base, destroying bamboo isn’t exactly a difficult problem. The ladder burns and they fall, managing to grip the wall with their fingertips before slipping to the ground. They’re on their feet fast, the Avatar swinging in front to block a torrent of flame from some of our benders.

“Hold your fire!” I hear Zhao command, and my hand pauses on the way to my quiver, “The Avatar must be taken alive!” And that was apparently the wrong thing to say, as the Blue Spirit suddenly had his broadswords around the boy’s neck. There were a tense few moments of silence before the admiral said something, too low for me to hear. Shinu protested, but Zhao would have none of it. The final gate began to open, allowing the two to shuffle backwards as the swordsman left with his hostage. The gates began to close, and the admiral turned and looked directly at me, gesturing with his hand for me to come to him. I was surprised he had seen me, but I leapt off the wall and scraped down it to the ground.

 _Thank Agni I remembered my gloves._ I sprinted across the yard to catch up as Zhao and Shinu climbed the last set of stairs to the top of the outer wall. I came to a stop just before the officers, and the scribe for some reason.

“Take aim,” Zhao ordered. I complied without a word, focusing on the retreating forms of the two fugitives. He turned forward, asking, “Do you have a clear shot?” I said nothing, closing an eye to help my aim. “Knock out the thief. I’ll deliver him to the Fire Lord, along with the Avatar.” The arrow’s path lined up with the blue mask I could still make out, even in the darkness. And I fired.

I could hear the metallic _ping_ as my shot hit home. I saw the Avatar pause, staring at his fallen rescuer before sweeping his hands and calling up a great cloud of dust.

“Quick! Recover the Avatar!” Zhao shouted to the soldiers below, even as the doors were already opening. They charged towards the cloud, spears drawn, but by the time they made it there, they were already gone. I could feel Zhao seething with rage from a few feet away when something interrupted the very tense moment.

“ _Ribbit._ ” We looked down to see a frog, likely one of the ones the kid had been collecting, jump up on a battlement, croak again, and then leap off the wall. And whether it was the tension of the last ten minutes finally breaking, or the fact that I was still half asleep, or just the day I’d had in general, it took everything I had to not burst out laughing at the looks on my commanding officers faces.

I had finally gotten my gear away, ready for bed, when Han knocked on the door, opening it without an answer. Not that I minded, I had stopped caring about people seeing me in my smallclothes all the way back in basic training. He was still in uniform, I’m pretty sure he was on night duty, but I don’t remember.

“Admiral Zhao wants to talk to you,” he said plainly. I almost groaned in frustration and began to pull piece of my uniform back out before he stopped me, “Just get enough to cover yourself, he’s not feeling patient.” I pulled on pants, shoes, and a shirt and followed him. We walked silently for the most part, Han didn’t talk much, and I was still peeved about being kept from sleep twice in one night. “You did well today,” he said suddenly. I whipped my head towards him, half confused. Not because I didn’t think I did well, the opposite in fact I’d done everything I needed to. It’s just that Han didn’t often give compliments.

“Thanks,” was all I said, and a nod is all I got in response. We were quiet as we ascended the stairs, and I realized where we were heading. “This is the way to the Colonel’s office, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Han smiled slightly, too slight for anyone other than someone who knew him to notice, “The Admiral has commandeered it until he leaves.”

A single snort escapes me. I manage to stifle it in time as we arrive at the door. Han nods and walks away, leaving me to deal with whatever was waiting for me inside. I entered to see Zhao seated behind Shinu’s desk reading a scroll, the Colonel nowhere to be seen. I stood at attention and waited to be addressed.

“Mayumi, correct?” he asked without looking up.

“Yes, sir.”

“You-” he paused as he looked at me, “I thought the mark of the Yuyan Archers was a tattoo.”

I blinked for a moment before realizing, “Oh, it is. However, the artist we had employed to tattoo new recruits fled to Ba Sing Se before I could get mine. And getting a new one hasn’t been much of a priority. I use face paint.”

“I see. I take it he was Earth Kingdom?” he asked, I nodded. Honestly, it was a wonder anything got done in the fortress considering how much of the staff was literally from the enemy. “Actually, that works out well,” I internally raised an eyebrow, but outwardly betrayed nothing as I waited for him to continue, “You performed magnificently today. Not only did your team capture the Avatar, but your relentless pursuit of him and his accomplice was truly inspiring.”

“Thank you, sir,” I was wondering where he was going with this.

“I was intrigued, so I asked your leader to give me an idea of your career and imagine my surprise when I find this rising star is a rookie!” he folded his hands and smiled at me, “Two years in the army, only one serving in the Yuyan, and yet already considered one of its most prodigious members.” He stood from the desk and walked around it, stopping in front of me, “How old are you, Mayumi?”

“Eighteen, sir.”

“Eighteen…” he smiled appreciatively, “You joined as soon as you could, then?”

“Yessir.” To be honest I was drafted, and it was hunting skills that carried me into the Yuyan.

“Your leader said you spar with the other soldiers as well,” Zhao noted, “You’re awfully devoted to your training.” I have the Yuyan to thank for that. Their extremely high demands and intensive regimen (that wasn’t showing off accuracy by pinning stationary targets) is what really pushed me ahead. It was the only thing to do around here, so I threw myself into it. Joining the other non-benders to practice hand to hand was only natural. Although apparently none of my comrades did the same.

“If I only focused on my skills in archery, I would be vulnerable in close quarters,” I explained, “It was only logical.”

“And yet that logic seemed to escape your fellow archers,” Zhao said, walking back around the desk, “Who, if I recall correctly, I don’t remember seeing during the Avatar’s escape.” I opened my mouth to protest but he waved me down, “I understand that they were likely not far behind, however the fact remains that you were first. It certainly makes you seem a step above. Which brings me to why I called you here.”

“Sir?” I was suddenly nervous. I had an idea of what he wanted.

“As of now, you are no longer a member of the Yuyan archers, and now will work directly under me.” Okay, hadn’t expected that, but he wasn’t finished. “As soon as you are able, I want you to track the Avatar.” There it was.

The sentence that changed my life forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey you ever procrastinate so hard on writing a fic that you start a different fic because doing something when you have something else to be doing boosts the productivity of the other thing? Not that I know what that's like, no sir.


End file.
